Raw Data: Dark money in Michigan politics

January 12, 2014

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Between 2000 and 2012, more than $88 million was spent in Michigan on candidate-focused television issue ads, political ads that support a candidate but do not explicitly tell viewers to vote for that candidate, according to research by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

Donors to these advertisements are not required to disclose their identities — and a new law, signed by Gov. Rick Snyder late last month, ensured that this policy won’t change. About a third of the spending in the 2012 elections, and about three quarters of spending in the Michigan Supreme Court campaigns, were issue ads.